After countless bashing online by fans and supporters on the lack of firmware updates for OM-1, followed by my vocal live stream session about the importance of having firmware updates for flagship cameras last week, and finally the online petition that went live just yesterday, OM Digital Solutions has finally broke silence today. They announced that a new firmware is in the works for the OM-1 original and will be available by fall this year. The announcement at this moment (you can view it here) is only available in Japanese, and the content is translated of course, but good enough to indicate what is to come.
Now, I have mixed feelings about this announcement.
Yes, I am definitely happy that finally, OM Digital Solutions is responding. It proves that they do indeed listen to their consumers' feedback and at some point, will take action. After all the overwhelming outcry and complains over the almost past two years, finally they are doing something about some of the serious issues that plagued the original OM-1, one of them being poor S-AF and C-AF performance in low light, low contrast situations. It is about time this issue got fixed.
On the other hand, why the heck did it take them that long to respond? When OM-1 Mark II came out, the online backlash got even worse. ThePhoblographer reported in their site that the OM-1 Mark II is the most expensive firmware upgrade ever, as they indicated that the features and improvements could have been added to the original OM-1 via firmware update (not all, but many can be done). As harsh as that commentary was, it was also impossible to disagree with that article. I guess, the combination of loud outcry from the forums, online groups, also myself being vocal in my Live Stream last week highlighting the importance of having a firmware update for flagship cameras, and finally, the online petition that went live just yesterday to ask for a firmware update for OM-1, it became increasingly difficult for OM Digital Solutions to ignore these requests.
Part of me felt vindicated because the main highlight of the update revolves around improvements in S-AF and C-AF performance. While the translation from Japanese was not 100% clear, I believe this was in response to a complain (which I was also very persistent about) on poor OM-1 AF in low contrast and low light situations. When I mentioned this issue in my videos, some "experts" called me out and said I did not know how to use my OM-1. They claimed that the OM-1's AF was perfect, that there was no such issue, in contrast to hundreds and hundreds of other photographers who encountered this similar problem, which was conveniently brushed aside by this so-called expert. Then he dared to claim that he had a solution, which involved "zooming in an enlarged area in live view" to improve focusing efficiency. Such impractical, and ineffective way of shooting, especially for live action and fast moving shots in low light, low contrast situations! I wonder if he was actually a real photographer himself, because if he had any experience in real life shooting, he would not have proposed such an illogical solution in the first place.
Now that OM Digital Solutions is supposedly coming up with a "fix" in firmware update to improve the S-AF and C-AF performance, I wonder what that "expert" has to say. If there was no issue, why is there a firmware to fix it?
I believe more information will surface about this coming firmware update for OM-1, and I won't make my comments too soon. This should be a major update, a 2.0, and I think OM Digital Solutions is not sharing too much details yet. I am hopeful that the OM-1 gets the firmware upgrade that it truly deserves, especially after all that wait.
At the meantime, if you have not done so, I highly encourage that you sign up the online petition here requesting for firmware update for OM-1 original. This strongly shows how much we care about the camera and the support it needs!
Please support me & keep this site going:
It is also said that it will be possible to assign the menu to the trash button.
ReplyDeleteFrom the US OM web site: https://explore.omsystem.com/us/en/firmware
ReplyDeleteNote that they expressly say that: "it will not include new features introduced with the OM-1 Mark II, such as Live GND and AI Detection AF for humans"
I am somewhat disappointed with the lack of AI detection for humans, but not surprised. Of course the cheapest new generation of Canon and Sony mirrorless cameras have that capability, but whatever.
Hi, this is Michael from the firmware petition team. We are just publishing on the firmware petition website https://firmwarepetition.org/petition/firmware-petition-om-1-mark-i-system-camera/ the following reply to today's OM Digital Solutions' announcement:
ReplyDeleteOM Digital System has announced today “…. We are planning to release a new firmware update for the “OM-1” in the fall of this year….“ and informed that OM Digital Solutions plans two types of updates.1
Our firmware petition team was delighted to learn that OM Digital Solution recognizes that firmware-based improvements to the original OM-1 are indeed possible.
But why shall such firmware updates only be released in autumn? In our opinion, this devalues such updates considerably, because by then the summer season for photographers will be over and the OM-1 will approach an age of 3 years, when a possible successor camera with new hardware might be much closer.
We also fail to understand the second type of improvement announced today: “Autofocus: Improvement of some AF performance capabilities, such as S-AF and C-AF in all-target mode to improve capture of main subjects.1” Does the statement “It will provide some AF performance improvements only …“, which follows later in the same text, mean that the OM-1 shall not benefit from improvements related to AF reliability in other modes (such as those typically preferred by wildlife photographers), beyond those related to "all-target mode"? Nor shall the OM-1 benefit from improvements in subject recognition, especially for human subjects? This would be very disappointing, as OM Digital Solutions representatives had stated already back in 2022 that such AF-related improvements could be made at firmware level2.
For these reasons, we maintain the pleas in our petition (1) for an OM-1 firmware update now, and (2) please ensure that a new firmware release goes beyond a “cosmetic” update and best addresses the improvements for which we and the petition’s supporters are hoping!
Furthermore, we would like to invite OM Digital Solutions once again to engage in direct dialogue with the users of its products – beyond reacting with “one-way” communication in press releases, etc. With this in mind, we had already informed the CEO of OM Digital Solutions of our intent to launch this petition and of the reasons for it, in a letter delivered to their headquarters on February 9.
1 Source: https://learnandsupport.getolympus.com/support/om-system-om-1#section-download-software, retrieved 21.02.2024
2 https://www.imaging-resource.com/news/2022/10/07/OMDS-2022-interview-great-outlook-aiaf-vs-tracking-af-150-400-eye-candy, retrieved 21.02.2024